El Paso has been named the "safest large city" in the nation for the third time, according to rankings by a research publishing firm.

REPORTER

Daniel Borunda

Officials credited law enforcement and residents working together in making El Paso the city with the "lowest crime rate ranking" of cities more than 500,000 population in the annual City Crime Rankings by CQ Press.

Mayor John Cook said there are a couple of reasons that El Paso is "the number one safest large city in the United States."

"The first is a great Police Department," Cook said. The second reason is "we have a focus on community policing in that we get everybody involved (in fighting crime). The things we are doing are working."

El Paso has been in the top three large cities with the lowest crime rates since 1997.

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The rankings used to be named the "safest" and "dangerous" rankings and are still commonly known by those names, but CQ Press changed the official name to the "City Crime Rankings" a few years ago.

The rankings are based on yearly data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Report for the crimes of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.

There were 33 cities in the rankings with a more than a half-million people.

"All El Pasoans should be proud of this recognition as it is truly a reflection of the El Paso community," Police Chief Greg Allen said in a news release.

Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102. Follow him on Twitter @BorundaDaniel